Aromatic polyamide fibers have proven highly effective for use in protective clothing, especially for protection against injury from stabbing, cutting, fragments or bullets. Thus for example, the World Fencing Association has prescribed the use of fencing jackets made of aromatic polyamide fibers to avoid the serious injuries that recur when engaging in this sport (High Performance Textiles, Vol. 8, No. 3, p. 14). Protective clothing made of aromatic polyamide fibers has demonstrated very high reliability in preventing injuries when used to protect the body against injury from bullets and fragments encountered in military, police, and disaster control applications. In addition to aromatic polyamide fibers, polyolefin fibers, especially polyethylene fibers, produced by the "gel" spinning process, are also used in these applications.
Aromatic polyamide fibers suffer from several disadvantages when used in protective clothing. In many applications, the natural yellow color of the aromatic polyamide fibers poses difficulties. It is possible with certain limitations to dye these fibers, but it does not help in all cases to cover up the undesired natural color of the aromatic polyamide fibers.
The undesirable natural color of aromatic polyamide fibers is especially evident in articles that must be white since, thus far, no way to bleach or optically brighten these fibers is known. Therefore, protective clothing made of aromatic polyamide fibers is usually manufactured so that the fabric providing the protection and made of aromatic polyamide fibers is covered with an outer material composed of fibers that can be readily dyed, printed, or optically brightened, thus to lend the clothing an aesthetic appearance. For example, in fencing vests, the protective layer of aromatic polyamide fibers is provided with an outer material composed of a fabric produced from polyester-cotton yarns (High Performance Textiles, Vol. 8, No. 3, p. 14).
Like all polyamide fibers, aromatic polyamide fibers undergo a decrease in strength when exposed to intense light. The cover layer in the form of an outer material over the actual protective layers fulfills other purposes as well, namely protecting the aromatic polyamide fibers against damage by exposure to light. In addition, the use of an outer material made of natural fibers increases the wearing comfort of protective clothing.
The manufacture of protective clothing using cover layers however means that several different fabrics must be kept in stock for the cover layers and the actual protective layers, and that a differentiated storage procedure is also required for different cover layers, because, for example, the same outer materials cannot be used for fencing vests and bulletproof vests. In the case of fencing vests, white outer materials are required, while bulletproof vests usually require outer materials that are dyed or printed.
Hence, objects of the present invention include: 1) provide for production of improved clothing which protects against injury from stabbing, cutting, fragments, and bullets; 2) provide textile structures used to manufacture the protective clothing; 3) simplify ordering requirements in the ready-to-wear protective clothing industry; and 4) make the manufacture of this protective clothing less expensive.